Deja Vu
After exploring the temple for ten minutes, Deborah, who had been scanning the surroundings, let out a small groan.
“Hmm… Something feels off.”
“Why? Are you hurt?”
“No. It’s just… this place feels familiar somehow. Like I’ve seen it before….”
Deborah tilted her head repeatedly, her memory hazy as she voiced her doubts. I dismissed her opinion outright.
“That can’t be right. This is your first time in this forest too, isn’t it?”
“It is. Still, something about it feels strangely familiar….”
“Stop saying weird things and get ready. There might be something dangerous ahead.”
“Hng… Understood.”
Deborah made a whining sound. If she kept acting spoiled like that, she probably thought I’d find it cute, but that was a big mistake. I was a cold-hearted person—aside from the fact that the corner of my mouth kept trying to twitch upward on its own, I felt absolutely nothing.
Deborah and I moved forward again, tense and cautious, heading deeper into the temple. Time passed, though it was hard to tell how much. In this silent space surrounded by walls on all sides, the flow of time was difficult to sense. It felt as though a very long time had passed, or perhaps only an instant.
Before long, we arrived at a wide cavern. Beyond the darkness untouched by light, I caught a glimpse of a massive altar and a figure slumped in front of it.
“Is that… a person?”
“No. It’s not human.”
Deborah’s sensory stats were low, so she couldn’t see it clearly, but the figure before us was covered head to toe in thick, shaggy fur. Standing over two and a half meters tall, it was hard to even classify as a beastkin. Above all, that low, rumbling growl didn’t feel like it came from an intelligent lifeform.
—Grrrrr!
Finally, the figure turned its eyes toward us. When Deborah met the glowing yellow beast eyes shining in the dark, she shrank back and blurted out its identity.
“W-Werewolf.”
Alongside vampires, werewolves were one of the most infamous other races of the Demonic Realm. I recalled that in Abel Chronicles, werewolves had levels approaching 150. Fortunately, there was no full moon here, so it wouldn’t go berserk, but that didn’t make it any less dangerous.
Just as I was about to warn her—
—KRAOOOOOOH!!
The werewolf let out a savage roar and charged at a speed barely visible to the eye. I quickly shoved Deborah aside.
BOOOOM!
A terrible impact slammed into my entire body. Thanks to blocking with Arachne’s Gloves, I avoided being torn apart by its claws, but the sheer force sent me flying like a toy and smashing into the wall. Since I hadn’t bothered equipping the Iron Wall Fortress, the damage accumulated directly on my body.
When I lifted my head, the werewolf was standing right in front of me.
“GRAAAH!”
It swung its claws without giving me any breathing room, clearly intent on finishing me off.
‘Move. Move!’
I tried to put strength into my body to dodge, but the part of me embedded in the wall refused to budge. In that life-or-death moment—
SLASH!
The claws narrowly missed me, carving a long gash into the wall instead.
“Ah…?”
As I stared blankly, Deborah shouted.
“Get out of there! Its magic resistance is too strong—I can’t hold it much longer!”
She had both hands outstretched, trembling. A purple starlight from her palms wrapped around the werewolf’s entire body. Judging by its unfocused eyes, she had used illusion magic to distort its vision.
Without thinking, I twisted my body and pulled free from the werewolf. The moment I stood in front of Deborah, the illusion magic broke.
—Grrrrrr!
The moment it regained its senses, the werewolf became extremely wary. Though it was only a low-class werewolf with low intelligence, it had realized Deborah’s magic posed a threat. From now on, it would probably target her relentlessly.
I pulled the Iron Wall Fortress out of my subspace.
“Deborah. Catch.”
“Huh? This is….”
“An artifact. It can block one attack, so remember that.”
“O-Okay. Thank you!”
Deborah looked worriedly at my back, which was bleeding profusely, but she didn’t waste time and quickly equipped the pendant-shaped Iron Wall Fortress. I was impressed—she’d become quite sharp after going through a few dangerous situations.
“Listen carefully. I have a way to kill it, but it’s a one-time use. Once I use it, it’s over. Can you stop its movements completely?”
“…If I squeeze out all my mana, I should be able to. But it’ll take time to cast. About a minute.”
“Good. I’ll hold out until then. Send a signal when the spell is ready. Got it?”
“Yes. You have to hold it off! Otherwise, I’ll die!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll die before you do.”
Deborah smiled faintly at my words, which barely counted as reassurance, then immediately began casting her spell. At the same time, the werewolf howled.
“GRAAAAAH!”
It charged again at lightning speed. I blocked its path and punched its claws away.
BOOOOM!
The impact felt like my shoulder was about to be ripped off! Since I knew it was targeting Deborah, I could somewhat predict its trajectory, but the absolute difference in physical ability was something I couldn’t overcome. If I clashed with it a few more times like this, my fragile wrists would snap like twigs.
The one small comfort was that all the impact was being stored in the threads? Not that it mattered if I died.
BANG! BOOM! CLANG!
Amid the fierce struggle, I gradually adapted to the werewolf’s speed. At first, I could barely see afterimages, but now I could even deflect its attacks. However, my desperate flailing seemed to irritate it.
—KRAOOOOOOH!
The werewolf’s eyes turned blood-red. It stopped targeting Deborah and poured all its strength into me alone. Thanks to that, predicting its trajectory became harder, and the strain on my body accelerated.
CRASH! BOOM!
Every time I blocked a blow, my bones rang. Having held out this long, I finally couldn’t endure anymore and called out to Deborah.
“Not yet?”
“It’s almost done! Just hold on a little longer!”
“Damn it! Hurry up!”
I didn’t know how many seconds passed after that. All I knew was that during the continued exchange, my left wrist, which had been holding up until now, snapped with a sickening crack.
“It’s ready!”
In that instant, Deborah finally gave the signal.
“Use it now!”
“Yes!”
At my command, Deborah thrust both arms forward and activated the spell she had cast. The purple mana that flashed from her hands was instantly absorbed into the werewolf’s body, and its movements slowed dramatically. It tried desperately to move, but its speed was worse than a newborn baby’s.
“Nice work!”
Confirming the magic had taken effect, I immediately drove my fist into the werewolf.
BOOOOM!
The energy stored in the gloves was released all at once, shattering everything in front of me. The shockwave carved a long scar into the ground and swept the werewolf away with it, blasting a hole dozens of meters wide into the wall. The power was truly terrifying.
*
Meanwhile, Abel’s party was climbing a mountain to search for monsters. Alissa looked around with a frown.
“Something’s wrong. Why are there so few monsters? There’s a valley nearby, so they should definitely be showing up around here. Abel, what do you think?”
“…I think it’s strange too. Something must have happened. Otherwise, this wouldn’t make sense. We should be more careful. Everyone, stay on guard.”
Everyone nodded at Abel’s warning. As they advanced with heightened tension, they suddenly spotted a group of people in the distance. They were struggling against a black-tinged Shabel Tiger.
“Hanson, don’t take it head-on! Kevin, just keep it in check! Wait until my magic is ready!”
At the center of the group, despite the difficult situation, someone calmly analyzed the Shabel Tiger’s strength and gave precise instructions. Alissa asked Abel for his opinion.
“What should we do?”
“We have to help. That’s no ordinary monster. If we leave them, they’ll be wiped out.”
His voice was filled with certainty. Abel’s gaze was already on the corpse whose throat had been torn out. The bow clutched in the corpse’s hand was striking. Abel gave advice to Nydia, the archer covering the rear of the team.
“Nydia. As you can see, the Shabel Tiger seems to target from behind. You need to be careful. Got it?”
“…Yeah, thanks. I’ll remember that.”
“Good. Then to join up first, Nydia and Yuni, tie down the Shabel Tiger’s legs!”
“…I’m not confident I can hit it.”
“Got it! Leave it to me!”
Nydia and Yuni gave starkly different answers, reflecting their personalities. The party waited until Yuni finished casting her spell, then immediately headed toward Scadia’s group the moment preparations were complete. When the distance closed to within 100 meters, the Shabel Tiger that had been attacking Scadia’s party turned to look at them.
Abel gave the order right away.
“Both of you, please!”
Receiving the signal, Nydia and Yuni launched their prepared attacks. Arrows rained down from Nydia’s bow, while Yuni floated dozens of small fireballs above her head and bombarded the area. Though the random attacks had low accuracy, they were perfect for restricting movement. While the Shabel Tiger retreated, the party quickly joined up with Scadia.
“Are you okay?”
“You all are….”
“I’m Abel! We can talk later. First, we need to deal with that monster.”
There was a lot they wanted to say to each other, but the situation didn’t allow it. Scadia accepted it easily.
“A wise choice. I’ll give the orders instead. It’s better to unify command. Do you agree?”
“Yeah. That’s fine. But could you tell me your name? It’ll be awkward if I have to call you without one.”
At those words, everyone’s eyes gathered on him. They couldn’t believe that Abel didn’t know Scadia, who had never once lost first place since enrollment. Yuni made an “oh no” face and elbowed Abel in the side.
“Abel! She’s the Class 1 representative! The one who got first place in the class assignment test and the midterms. You even saw her with me last time—did you forget?”
“Huh? Oh, right. Sorry, Scadia. My memory’s not great. I apologize.”
Abel bowed his head without hesitation. The sight of him casually calling her by name caused murmurs to spread around them again, but the person in question didn’t seem to care much. Scadia’s gaze remained fixed on the Shabel Tiger.
“…It’s fine. It’s possible you wouldn’t know. More importantly, let’s focus on the fight. If we let our guard down, we’ll get hurt badly. Abel, switch with Hanson for now. He doesn’t look like he can hold out much longer.”
“Got it!”
Though she could have asserted her pride as the leader of a team, Abel moved to follow Scadia’s orders without any resistance. He took over blocking the attacks aimed at Hanson and faced the Shabel Tiger head-on. Scadia saw an opportunity for victory there.
‘We can win.’
While casting her spell, she simultaneously gave orders and led the fight. The two people who should have been competing had joined hands in the worst crisis.